Saturday, December 27, 2014

Islamic State has suffered severe losses as a result of coalition air
strikes in the last months. Over 1,000 of its fighters have been
killed, and Kurdish peshmerga forces have driven the jihadists back on a
wide front between the cities of Erbil and Mosul.
The terror movement has also failed to conquer the symbolic town of
Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) close to the Syrian-Turkish border (further south,
Islamic State losses have been more modest and at least partially
reversed).

Monday, December 22, 2014

This
article provides the most thorough overview yet of how jihadis have plotted
terrorist attacks in Europe. Drawing on a database of 122 incidents, we review
trends in weapon types, attack types and target types in the period 1994–2013.
The overall finding is that jihadi terrorism in Europe is becoming more
discriminate in its targeting while attack types and weapons are becoming
progressively more diverse. The most likely scenarios in the coming three to
five years are bomb attacks and armed assaults against sub-national entities,
communities and individuals. A majority of the terrorist attacks will be
limited in scope, but mass-casualty terrorism cannot be excluded. Foreign
fighters from Syria are likely to influence the threat level in Europe, but we do
not expect them to alter patterns in modus operandi dramatically.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

The so-called "Great Albania" project, which is merely the unification of Albanian scattered populations in the Balkans, is being sought after by a variety of often conflicting in between them, nationalistic circles, with little chances of success.

Friday, December 19, 2014

The Movement of the Taliban
in Pakistan,
one of many al-Qaeda-linked jihadist groups operating in the South Asian
country, launched one of its more horrific attacks earlier today. A nine-man Taliban
suicide assault team stormed a high school for the children of military
personnel in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Armed with suicide vests and assault rifles, the squad fanned out across the
school and executed everyone in its path. An estimated 145 people were killed, most of them students between the
ages of 12 and 16.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

A joint U.S.-Turkish operation last month led to the capture
of a senior Libyan al-Qaeda leader allegedly involved in the 2012 murder of
Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi. While the arrest highlights
high-level U.S.-Turkish intelligence cooperation, it also raises serious
questions over Turkey’s transformation into a terrorist hub.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

Being a U.S. ally does not absolve a country of its responsibilities.
Failure to sanction Qatar and Turkey sends a powerful message to these
terror sponsors.

A bipartisan group of two dozen members of Congress have written a letter
to the U.S. Treasury Department asking for sanctions on Turkey and
Qatar, supposedly two U.S. “allies,” for their support of Hamas and
other Islamist terrorists (Click here to see a copy of the letter). “Any entity or nation that continues
to back this U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization [Hamas] and
provides it material and financial support should be sanctioned…We also
request specific public updates on Treasury’s discussions with the
Qatari government on previously designated, Qatar-based terrorist
financiers that the Qataris have yet to act upon,” the letter requests.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Israel filed a complaint with NATO in late November over Turkey’s role in supporting terrorism in the
West Bank and Gaza.
Specifically, Israel called out Turkey for harboring and supporting known Hamas
officials. The complaint specifically mentions Salah al-Arouri, the head of
Hamas’ armed wing in the West Bank, who has lived in Turkey since 2010. Arouri
also claimed responsibility for this summer’s kidnapping
and murder of three Israeli teenagers, an abduction that helped spark this
summer’s war 50-day war in Gaza.

Fighters from the Caucasus
Emirate entered the Chechen capital of Grozny
last night and launched a major assault on security forces and government
buildings. The fighting, which lasted through the morning and is reported to
have killed more than a dozen people, ended a relative lull in activity in the
Russian Caucasus by the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group.

Facts
prove the Brotherhood's violent history. The White House itself has condemned
the organization's calls to violence.

The White House has
rejected a request to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group, describing
the group as non-violent. The statement is not only at odds with known facts;
it’s at odds with statements made by the White House only one year ago.The White House statement
came in response to a petition with 200,000 signatures citing the
Brotherhood’s history of violence and how its preachers, particularly Sayyid Qutb,
have bred multitudes of terrorists. Egypt,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
recently banned the Brotherhood as a terrorist group.“We have not seen credible
evidence that the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced its decades-long commitment
to non-violence,” the White House said.Yet, on July 8, 2013, the
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “We also condemn the explicit
calls to violence made by the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Italy has always been an appealing hideout for
Tunisian jihadists during the years that Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was in power
and that is mainly due to two reasons: the vicinity between the two countries,
only about 140 km separate the Tunisian coast from Sicily and the possibility
to disguise among the vast presence of Tunisians and North Africans in general.

Monday, December 1, 2014

The Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot that controls large portions
of Iraq and Syria, and its supporters are marketing the Sinai as a
destination for young recruits seeking to wage jihad.
On Nov. 10, the Sinai-based faction of Ansar Bayt al Maqdis (ABM), also known as Ansar Jerusalem, swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, who heads the Islamic State. Shortly thereafter, ABM began marketing itself as the Islamic State's province in the Sinai.